Former bishop speaks out over NHS transgender fertility treatment

A former bishop has expressed concern after reports the NHS is offering fertility treatment to people changing gender from female to male.

According to the Mail on Sunday, the NHS is allowing transgender patients freeze their eggs and also have access to IVF treatment.

The process means that an embryo, comprising of the transitioned man's egg and a donor's sperm, could be implanted in their female partner who acts as a surrogate.

Separately, there has been a case of a legally registered male giving birth to a child. Thomas Beatie (below) transitioned from female to male but declined a hysterectomy, keeping his womb.

He then received a donor's sperm and has since given birth to three babies.

Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, former Bishop of Rochester, told the newspaper that the process goes against the "natural order" and that children could be "confused by not knowing if the parent is a father or a mother".

He added: "Any child is best brought up by knowing the biological father and biological mother."

Others have said that it's discriminatory to bar transgender people from access NHS fertility treatment, when other people who have lost their ability to have children already have access to the service.